New Music On A Monday

My boss’s boss stepped into my office this morning, he’s not normally a man to make a personal connection, but the fact that he did speaks volumes.

Our exchange went something like this:

Him: Hey, you’re a musician, right?

Me: Yes, I am.

Him: Well, wow, have you heard of The Tallest Man On Earth?

Me: Hmmmm, no, I haven’t.

Him: We saw him last night at The Moore…he was…amazing…real unusual voice…Swedish guy…you gotta check him out…on YouTube, watch, let’s see, look for…what’s it called?…”Love Is All”…yeah, “Love Is All”!…really great stuff. Let me know what you think!

This is how we act when we discover new music that has touched us. It leaves us a little speechless, which is rather inconvenient, when all you want to do is shout about it from the rooftops, so that others might share in your discovery, so that others might feel that electric charge, that joy that good music can bring.

So, this Tallest Man On Earth guy, he’s actually a Swedish neo-folk singer/songwriter named Kristian Matsson, and, now that I’ve listened to an album or two, I’m happy to join the chorus singing his praises.

While the Bob Dylan influences are front and center (Are they ever not, if you’re a guitar-slinging folksinger?), Matsson is no Dylan rip-off.

There’s a freshness to his music, maybe it’s the Swedish roots, and there’s a very raw and genuine, expressive and non-affected quality to his voice. His lyrics are visually striking and emotional (you’d never, ever know that English was not his first language), and his guitar playing is deft and melodic.

And that’s where the words start failing, at least for now. I’d rather go back to listening to him instead of writing about him.

Here’s the song that my boss’s boss recommended, a good choice, for me especially, since I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with the gorgeous-sounding and gorgeous-looking Gretsch Firebird that Matsson is playing.